Rwanda ‘ready to fight’ with DR Congo if necessary, President Paul Kagame says • FRANCE 24 English

Rwanda ‘ready to fight’ with DR Congo if necessary, President Paul Kagame says • FRANCE 24 English

hello and welcome to Ted France 24’s Flagship interview show our guest today is a president of Rwanda Paul kagame Mr President thank you very much for being our guest you’re welcome in a recent interview the president Felix jti said quote what’s happening in eastern DRC is a genocide 10 times worse than the one in Rwanda in 1994 and he points the figure at you and say you deserve much more than the international criminal court what is your response well it’s it’s you can’t um be responding to everything and everybody says whether it is an exaggeration or fabrication or people running away from their own problems and blaming others which this case seems to be so using the word genocide is not by accident probably no well I wouldn’t come to that and just leave behind defining the problem what actually that actually is taking place Eastern cono problems should C be understood even by uh the person who leads that country he does seem to have a selective memory of what to call what is happening there uh because in Rwanda we have a 100,000 refugees 100,000 and they keep coming and most some of them or most of them have been there for over 20 years and there are associated with this problem and these people they’ve lost their property their land their their own relatives and friends have been killed in eastern Congo because of who they are you might want to know that the mirror image of what happened in Randa 94 has actually evolved over years in eastern Congo the ones the 100,000 people I’m talking about and actually there are three four time or four times the same number in Uganda and I think others have gone to other places they’ve been uh removed from their place their property and their lives their their lives have been destroyed because they are called tootsies so so the tootes of Congo are supposed to be treated like the tootes of Rwanda in 94 and in fact you see it when you look at the alliances that have even been formed both on the ground in eastern Congo and bringing in Burundi and the pronouncements made by the same person making accusations or publicly on on the media platforms uh with hate speech and the support for f that killed the same rwandans in Rwanda so the way they come together under this leadership in the I mean to to ignore that and you want to call it something else somewhere else by somebody I think you have to be missing something in in in your mind meaning he’s not rational is that what you’re implying here I’m not even saying he himself I’m talking about anybody who listens to that and thinks he’s even being rational um there is a mediation by Angola for month to try to bring your foreign ministers and eventually you and the president of thec together uh from uh what we’re hearing on both sides it doesn’t seem that this is going to work or are you still hoping I don’t know but for us we have been very clear uh there are processes in our region is the Luanda process in Angola there has been Nairobi process in Kenya there have been other efforts to try and help resolve the problem but nothing’s working right yes but for Randa we have always been present and have contributed as much as we can to make it work but Congo seems to have other ideas because East African Community deployed forces there to go and help the next day he expelled them then he brings in other groups he selected who he believed we going to fight for him to be able to continue what he’s been doing brought in sadak forces then detached Burundi from the East African forces and there others so the whole thing is confused but it is being confused by the same people who are hearing and complaining about problems you’re still open to meeting him directly despite all the misgivings you just talked about I saw him as the one who put conditions I have never put conditions when I was invited in Rwanda to have discussions on Eastern Congo and andc generally situation there between them and Rwanda I was there then there were um ministerial meetings that were supposed to prepare for when we should meet I you can ask the Ang they will tell you I was ready I have always been ready are you still ready that’s my question or do you think it’s too late the trust is lost there has I don’t think the question matters a lot because it is just a repetition of what I’m saying that you are making me do I’m told you I’ve been always ready so if I am saying that and I haven’t if I was not ready I would tell you I’m not ready but I haven’t told you that um in recent month uh the United Nations but also the United States France the European Union have accused Ronda not only of supporting the M23 uh group but of being directly military involved in the DRC there’s just a new uh report from the uh group of experts at the UN it says you’re more and more present uh in DRC the Rondon Armed Forces well is this the case because you’ve never accepted this but clearly we’re seeing them accuse you much more directly than previously why would one be in Congo that question needs to be asked or or supporting M23 needs to be asked by anyone who wants to understand the problem and even later on deal with it because you have to understand what is M23 how did they come about Rwanda did not create M23 they were created by International Community is saying creating M23 no they are saying I don’t think I have heard them say we are the ones who created them all they have said is that we are supporting them and for me the question is we are supporting an entity that exists why first of all if it exist why don’t we look at the root cause of this problem so the International Community can also I mean just because is International Community you don’t accept everything they say or the question you just have to go by facts and this is what we keep raising with them how do they explain that we have refugees 100,000 people persecuted in eastern Congo because of their identity and now they want to turn them into Rwandan citizens when they are conges and and everybody is talking about these accusations I understand what you’re saying but can you answer that question are randan military forces present Inc for whatever reason can you answer my question as well I’m not to answer your question if you’re not ready to answer my question and this is what I tell the Western countries and others who raise these matters out of context so cannot just so you want to turn everything a very complicated situation and a big problem into a narrow thing of just accusing Rwanda of presence in E Congo no and this is what I’m refusing let’s not just talk about presence of support of anybody let’s also talk about the underlying causes that would even make anybody do what they have to do if that is the case so let me try to phrase this differently do you feel that the situation in eastern Congo is a direct threat to the security of Rhonda and thereby means that Ronda will take any measures to defend themselves which could also mean milit we have said that publicly right there’s no secret about it it’s a threat in as far as Congo is running away from its problems of its citizens whom it deprives of their all their rights and kills them and persecutes them and there is hate speech there is actually genocidal ideology operating in eastern Congo and this can’t be happening on its own so there’s that persecution of these people being called toses and therefore they must suffer like those in Randa in 94 suffered then there is the support for FDR these are genocidal forces that have been in Kong for close for now 30 years actually now why what is this International Community asking or what raise they as the conges government to take their distances and deal with the fdlr what is that I mean do they have to beg them to do that they are begging them so in other words they in Congo solve that problem if you want but if you don’t want we are still with you is that the case so for us from that the question you asked are is this a threat is that situation a threat to us absolutely and shall we react to that in a manner we think fit to resolve that no question about it is war with DRC a real possibility well you referred to what president SED was answering and raising as questions among other things I think he has told you and others several times even recently he was talking about taking War to Randa and removing the government andah blah blah blah all kinds of things well if somebody is saying that and in this kind of situation well on one hand you may think this person is bluffing or he has nothing else to say other than that but at the same time given our own situation and experience and history we don’t take anything for granted so you’re ready to fight if need be whether this Eastern con situation and what comes out flows over to our territory or anything else we are ready to fight because we are there as a result of having fought for our own rights and existence there’s no question about it so we are not shying away from saying if anybody finds us or threatens us I mean I don’t it’s not a secret are you afraid of Western sanctions because of the presence denounced of your troops in let me tell you let me tell you this with our history with all these things we are talking about the way we have been shaped by these hardships and injustices and it doesn’t matter by who we are not afraid of anything elections are scheduled on July the 15th uh you only have two opponents uh no real opposition obviously uh many observers believe that uh this will be obviously very easy for you too easy because they said there’s no real uh opposition no real Democratic uh life uh why is Rwanda still a democracy where you have very little opposition after all those years is it because of you for the opposition there are those that exist even if you call them few that’s fine I don’t know whether there is a number that one must have many were disqualified you know that I mean and there there is this notion that it’s uh controlled election essentially not a full-fledged election yeah that’s half the story if if they are controlled or whatever do you understand the process I think if you are interested in knowing what is happening in Randa you have to understand the process and our process is no different from other processes anywhere in the world right but being elected with 90 or 95% is it do you think it’s a healthy thing for Rwanda because that’s the most likely results the situations and contexts are different I don’t even mind that somebody is eled by 15% if that is their context but why should you worry about somebody being elected with 90% if that is their context because in the end it is the context that he decides uh there were uh some reports recently uh conducted by series of media organized called Ronda classified uh which report about a pattern of repression uh inside Ronda outside Ronda against uh those who oppose you um we don’t obviously have time to cover everything uh I want to touch upon the the case of an investigative reporter John Tali who died in uh January 23 officially from a motorbike accident according to the reports where in in ruanda in Ronda yesh according to the reports uh there’s a suspicion that he was actually eliminated uh because of his work his investigative work because of his opposition what you make this is an example of those reports who essentially saying that you’re behind a repression machine and sometimes a killing machine what they are doing is not trying to be right and correct and they haven’t even investigated what you are talking about but it shows where they come from it’s always an attitude it’s always arrogance it’s always when it comes even like we are sitting here journalist from these countries will feel happy you know throwing mud at me and abusing me literally insulting me and in the end they pass for being Heroes so you deny all those allegations no answer my question because I’m not supposed to be here in front of you answering allegations you’re not the judge I’m not being prosecuted here we are talking about we are reasoning we are talking about journalism we are talking about politics and we have to have facts and evidence for what you are talking about Paul kagam I want to thank you very much uh for being our guest today and thank you for watching this show here on Friends 24 [Music]

In an exclusive interview with FRANCE 24, Rwandan President Paul Kagame discussed the tense relations between his country and neighbouring DR Congo. He said Rwanda is “ready” to go to war with DR Congo if necessary.

Read more about this story in our article: https://f24.my/AQ0J.y

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